Cybersecurity
Mission
The mission is to connect employees to services and information through people-focused technology solutions, in a safe and secure way.
Goals
- Ensuring protection of our City employees and residents through the ongoing development of our security best practices.
- Analyzing data to develop and share actionable mitigation recommendations.
- Educating City employees on the importance and impacts of security threats.
- Creating awareness about cybersecurity best practices. #BeCyberSmart
Identifying Email Phishing Attempts
Cybercriminals use phishing tactics to lure users into clicking on malicious links, attachments, and filling out forms to access personal and financial information. Phishers will often impersonate an existing email address to fool users into trusting the sender. It's vital to verify email senders before interacting with any links or attachments. For example, verify the sender by carefully checking the "from" email address. Any misspellings or unusual domain names are a red flag for identifying phishing attempts.
External Email Banner
An external email banner is applied to all emails that are sent from external, non-City of Madison email addresses. This red banner will help City staff identify potentially malicious emails, links and attachments. The banner displays as shown in the screenshot below.
What to Do if You See this Banner
If the red external email banner appears on an email message in your inbox, follow these steps.
- Verify the email sender. Review the sender’s email address, do you recognize it?
- Hover over links and attachments before clicking. Review the potentially malicious links and attachments by hovering with your mouse to verify the link.
- If the email seems suspicious or you are unsure, forward the email to cybersecurity@cityofmadison.com and our Cybersecurity Team will review the message.
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month
Held every October, National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) is a collaborative effort between government and industry to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity and to ensure that everyone has the resources they need to be safer and more secure online.
NCSAM 2022 Newsletters
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month Kick-off
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Cybersecurity 101
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month: Passwords